Leyfer Ovsanna T, Tager-Flusberg Helen, Dowd Michael, Tomblin J Bruce, Folstein Susan E
Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders at Boston University, 6th Floor, 648 Beacon Street, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
Autism Res. 2008 Oct;1(5):284-96. doi: 10.1002/aur.43.
Autism and specific language impairment (SLI) are developmental disorders that, although distinct by definition, have in common some features of both language and social behavior. The goal of this study was to further explore the extent to which specific clinical features of autism are seen in SLI. The children with the two disorders, matched for non-verbal IQ, were compared on the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADI-R) and the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS). In the SLI group, 41% met autism or autism spectrum cut-offs for social or communication domains either on the ADI or ADOS or both. No relationship was found between the language deficits exhibited by the children with SLI and their scores on the ADI and ADOS. These findings contribute to evidence that there is some overlap in social and communicative deficits between autism and SLI, supporting the view that autism and SLI share etiologic factors. This continuum of pathology between SLI and autism appears to range from structural language abnormalities as seen in individuals with SLI to individuals with SLI with both structural and social abnormalities to individuals with autism with pragmatic impairment and language abnormalities.
自闭症和特定语言障碍（SLI）是发育障碍，虽然从定义上看是不同的，但在语言和社会行为方面有一些共同特征。本研究的目的是进一步探讨自闭症的特定临床特征在SLI中出现的程度。对非言语智商匹配的这两种障碍儿童，在修订版自闭症诊断访谈（ADI-R）和自闭症诊断观察量表（ADOS）上进行比较。在SLI组中，41%在ADI或ADOS或两者上，在社交或沟通领域达到自闭症或自闭症谱系的临界值。未发现SLI儿童表现出的语言缺陷与其在ADI和ADOS上的得分之间存在关联。这些发现为自闭症和SLI在社交和沟通缺陷方面存在一些重叠提供了证据，支持了自闭症和SLI共享病因因素的观点。SLI和自闭症之间这种病理连续体似乎从SLI个体中所见的结构性语言异常，到既有结构性又有社会性异常的SLI个体，再到有语用障碍和语言异常的自闭症个体。
